My pet hedgehog

Well, another month past. I celebrated my 24th birthday on July 9th in Kourouma. I know many reading this will roll their eyes, but turning 24 was quite scary! For some reason it just feels much older than 23. One reason for my fears may be due to Malians constantly telling me that I'm old and should be married with kids by now! Alas. I had an easy-going birthday. I invited Solika, Kalilu, and Nyiere over for banana cake after dinner. That morning though, Solika said that we should have chicken at the party. I said that I would give him money for it if he would buy and prepare it. Surprisingly he agreed, and at 8 pm he showed up at my house with a chicken. I thought there was no way he'd have it ready in time for us to eat that night, but he slit the throat, heated water to pluck it, plucked it in literally 3 minutes, pulled out a super sharp knife and had it perfectly chopped up in about 2 minutes and had it cooking with onions and garlic in another five. It was delicious! Kalilu, Nyiere and Bakary, a boy who always walks me home after dinner at my Homologue's house, were also there and we ate and paid tribute to Michael Jackson by listening to some of his greatest hits off of my mp3 player. Just goes to show; Malian men can cook, they just don't.

I had a pet for four days this past month - a hedgehog! After vaccinations in this other village, Solika and I went to greet his girlfriend's family. The father pointed out a hedgehog skin drying on a post. Apparently, a mama hedgehog was walking through the concession one night with her baby walking behind her. Some kids killed her to eat, leaving the baby. The skin was hers, and the father went to get the baby to show me. I held it but it was curled up in a tiny ball because it was scared. The family said that I should take it home to raise, so we got a plastic baggie, poked some holes in the side, and put the hedgehog (I named him Sidiki) inside for the ride back to Kourouma. When we got to my village, I put Sidiki in a big wash basin with some millet and crushed peanuts. He got used to me and would crawl around on my arm, but I became bored with him pretty quickly. Unless you're a masochist, hedgehogs aren't exactly good pets for cuddling. After a few days, I gave him to this little boy, Jean, who really wanted to raise him. The next morning, Jean came to my house and said that Sidiki had escaped from the box that they had put him in. I thought it was probably better, since Sidiki wasn't very happy living in captivity. About a week ago though, Jean came to my house again and said that he saw Sidiki again - he hadn't even left the concession. I asked if he had taken him and let him loose in the fields, and Jean said no. I'll let you guess what Jean did with Sidiki instead.

The last week in July was spent working on a World Map in Foh, a village on the main road about 18 km from Kourouma. As Foh is part of the Kourouma commune, the school director, Zeini Traore, saw the World Map that I did last year and had been asking me for about a year if I could come do one in his village. I went for 9 days total and got some good biking in going to and from Kourouma. It's a good thing that I got so much biking in because Zeini and this other teacher who helped out a ton with the map, Ninon Traore, fed me well! Rice with good sauce and meat pretty much every day; peanuts and hard-boiled guinea fowl eggs for snacks; cold soft drinks and hibiscus juice; enough cups of Malian tea to put me in sugar shock. After learning that I drink beer, they even bought me a beer two different days! One day, we had a pre-lunch snack of goat meat. I was full and offered the last piece to Zeini. Ninon, a big, jovial guy said "No! You need to eat it so that when you go back to Ameriki, people will say, 'Eh, Awa, you got fat!'".

Rainy season is in full-swing. While I'm glad that it's not as hot, there are several downsides to rainy season. One: mangoes are finished, and I can't express how sad I am. Two: clothes take forever to dry. I washed a bunch of t-shirts the other day and hung them out to dry. About an hour later, a pre-rain wind storm came and blew them off the line into the dirt. After cleaning them yet again, I put them inside to dry which took two days due to the humidity. Three: pretty much everyone is out in the fields all day every day, so it's really hard to greet. On Friday morning, I didn't have anything to do and decided to walk around town. I went to a couple of concessions and was able to say hello to a bunch of women who were on their way out to the fields. I finally decided to go to a concession where this old man lives, because he is blind and thus surely would be home. I got to his house and what do you know, he was out in the fields! Apparently he just knows the earth so well that even though he can't see, he can feel what needs to be weeded and what needs to stay. Amazing!